Shadows and Light
by liliaeth
Summary: A short meeting between a Slayer and an immortal
1. Shadows

Title: Shadows  
Author: Lore  
Rating: PG13  
Summary: A short fight between Richie and a mysterious teenager aids  
him out of the darkness.  
Category: Crossover with Buffy  
Notes: This has a companion piece called 'Light'  
E-mail: lilith93@hotmail.com  
  
  
  
  
  
Richie panted over the body of his latest foe. The woman had tried to  
run he hadn't let her. In the end even her begging for mercy hadn't  
saved her. He heaved himself up over the body, touching his chest as he did so. There was blood on his hands now. Innocent blood.  
  
He stared at the corpse. It was dressed in the finest fashions. Her  
shoes were high heeled. Those had not been of any help to her when  
they fought.  
She'd seemed so unprepared, surprised even. Not entirely untrained,  
but still young. A bit over his own age and now she was dead. The  
hazards of the Game.  
  
He picked the body over his shoulder, throwing it in the trunk of his  
car. A wallet fell out of her pocket. He picked it up. Who knows, she  
seemed rich enough. And it wasn't as if she still needed the money.  
There were pictures inside of the thing. A man, children, he dropped  
the wallet on the floor.  
  
Where was that head? He ignored the wallet, the money, the pictures,  
the proof of his crime. Her dark red hair had hidden her head in the  
darkness. He'd just picked it up when he heard something. He turned  
around, dropping the head and grabbing his sword, ignoring the loud  
crash as the skull hit the stone.  
  
A young girl appeared from the shadows. A light etched out of the  
darkness. She had golden blond hair that surrounded her face as an  
angelic aura. It was oddly in contradiction with her no nonsense  
outfit. A black leather vest over a pair of stretch pants.  
  
The girl looked at him in revulsion when she noticed the head. She  
didn't even seem surprised by the sword in his hand and grabbed  
something, he couldn't quite catch from where. It was a long piece of  
wood. She attacked him and at first Richie just defended himself. She  
was only mortal, no true threat to him. That appeared to be a mistake.  
  
She hit him in het gut and kicked his feet out from under him. The  
stake appearing over his heart. The fool, what did she think he was, a  
vampire?  
The girl hesitated and he rolled out of the way, getting right up  
again. This time he was the first to attack, her wooden weapon was no  
defense against his rapier. He forced her up against the wall, his  
sword against her throat.  
  
"You have no idea what you're messing with." He hissed in her ear, his  
lips touching her warm hot skin. The Quickening coursed through her.  
  
She kicked him in the groin, making him squirm in pain.  
  
"Some kind of demon?" she stated in a clear bubbly voice.  
  
Richie managed to chuckle in between taking deep breaths.  
"Hardly." he wanted to say, but he didn't, letting her come to her own  
conclusions. A cut she'd given him on his head started healing and she  
seemed surprised at the sight.  
"You have no idea." Was all he'd say. She snorted.  
  
The immortal straightened himself up, holding his sword defensively as  
if against an armed challenger. She got out of the way and grabbed  
hold of a metal bar. He greeted her and the fight started again. Both  
were equally matched, he had the experience, the training, she held  
the natural finesse and instincts he could only dream about.  
  
But in the end it was the immortal that won. He stood over her, his  
sword ready to land in her throat. Her eyes turned to him. Not  
innocent, like he'd thought at first, but hurt like his own.  
Worry, and a slight bit of fear shivered inside those eyes, yet she  
didn't blink or fear, she just accepted. His sword was up in the air.  
Why didn't she get up and fight? This just didn't feel right, killing  
her like this, a mortal.  
  
He looked in those big blue eyes and saw those of the woman he'd just  
murdered. Whichever way he turned it, that had been murder. He stood  
still, his sword down, she used the moment and kicked him to the  
ground. She stood over him, he could feel something hit him in the  
chest, he felt blood sip from his lips, hit the wall and died.  
  
He was almost surprised to find his head still attached when he came  
too. His chest hurt, severely. He pulled something out of it, a stake.  
It hurt.  
The young immortal groaned as he saw her. Her mouth fell open in  
shock. She really hadn't expected him to come back.  
  
He held his chest while getting up, supporting himself on the hard  
stone of the basketball court.   
  
"You're not going to kill me again, are you?" She gasped, he ignored her and grabbed for his sword.  
  
"Stay out of my way girl, it'll only get you hurt."  
  
He gazed around, looking for the head. It was still lying there, the  
skull obviously cracked. She just stood still, as if she were waiting  
for the moment to attack. Richie grumped and returned to his rental.  
  
Damn! It stank of the corpse inside. He wouldn't be able to just return it. Not like this. Thank god he hadn't rented it under his real name.  
Maybe he should just get a new bike. Why care that he didn't have the  
money?  
  
"Don't worry kid, I'm leaving. Don't get involved."  
He started the car and left, leaving a befuddled teenager behind.  
  
Companion Piece: Light  
  



	2. Light

Title: Light  
Author: Lore  
Rating: PG13  
Summary: Shortly after Prophecy girl, Buffy has a fight with a young  
looking stranger.  
Notes: This has a companion piece called 'Shadows' and happens before  
End of Innocence  
E-mail: lilith93@hotmail.com

Buffy shivered in the cold, pulling Angel's jacket closer to her body.  
Something felt wrong. Was it just the coldness inside of her. Knowing what her fate was, what her life would be like. A constant battle, nothing of her own, just her destiny.  
The master was dead, or was he?  
She wasn't sure anymore, not with the nightmares that kept disturbing her dreams.  
  
Nothing was sure anymore, nothing but the Slayer.  
She walked through the darkly lit streets of LA, the city where anything could happen and usually did. Just the part her mother would never want her to enter.  
  
Her father had no idea what she was doing. He thought she was at home or with old friends while he was dating. He had no idea of how different she was from the Buffy she used to be. Why did she even come  
over anymore, it wasn't like if he even cared.  
  
No, something was wrong, felt off, but what?  
  
A crackle of lightening filled the air. It came out of nowhere, lightening on a clear and warm august night?  
She ran in its direction, just in time to see the lightshow end.  
A man more like a boy, stood bent over a corpse. He seemed tired.  
It took her a moment to realize the corpse was spread so strangely because it was missing its head. Even now, she still wasn't used to seeing corpses. Especially ones like that, the ones cut in half. There was something gross about the way the head was separated from the body, like a broken doll.  
  
The boy stood focused in the beams of the streetlights, drops of sweat trickled from his head. The murder weapon, a sword was still in his hand.  
His other hand held something, the woman's head. His look was grim, the short red hair made him look hard, yet he had the deepest blue eyes that she'd ever seen. There was more pain in those eyes than  
should ever be carried by one person. She didn't really care. What about the dead woman's pain. She could hear the crack of the skull as it hit the stone. He looked like a teenager, someone she could meet in  
school. Despite that, he was probably some kind of demon. He had to be! What kind of human being could do something that horrible.  
  
She took a stake out of an inside pocket and got ready for attack. He waited for her, nice of him, she pressed her attack. The Slayer didn't even bother to notice that he limited his moves to self-defense. There  
was an arrogant ring about his attitude that sent her in a rage. She kicked his shins, forcing his legs out from under him and got ready to dust him. The fact that he hadn't shown any kind of vampiric or  
otherwise demonic face all through the fight was all too easily forgotten. He didn't even show a glimpse of fear, just a slight surprise at being faced by a girl.  
  
She hesitated no more than a second to long. He got out of the way before she could stake him, this time he didn't force it, using his sword. Her stake was no defense against it. The bastard sliced right through it. She lost her temper and he got her up to the wall. Some sharp stones stuck out of the derelict building. She couldn't move, the cold steel cut into her skin, an inch away from drawing blood.

"You have no idea what you're messing with." 

His voice lowly hissed the words in her ear. His breath felt warm upon her ears. The wind brushing by his lips, his tongue so close.   
Almost a lovers kiss, so alive, so unlike Angel. An enemy yet closer to her right now than the damn vampire ever allowed himself to come.   
He was warm, so warm, prickles of lightening still played across his skin.   
She put on her blondest look, kicked him in the groin and bubbly stated: 

"Some kind of demon?"

Yet another monster out to kill maim and destroy. Another of the endless stream of creatures that filled her nights and weekend instead of the boys and fun she should be entitled to have. She didn't care  
what he was. Not really, all that mattered was the end, her stopping him or her death. That was all it ever was.  
  
Yet he was beautiful, even that strange lightening around him was fascinating in an odd kind of way.

"You have no idea." 

The words were barely audible. She grumped, that's what they all thought, that they were all so fucking unique. She wasn't even sure if she meant men or demons.  
  
He just refused to stay down as he ought. His sword gleamed in the soft fluorescent light that came down from the streetlight. She knew she was outmatched and rolled out of the way, right up in front of a  
metal bar as if she'd planned it. This time she confronted him more equally armed. His skill with a sword was shortly put, amazing. If not for her Slayer strength and natural ease with weaponry she'd be dead by now. Hell if not for those, she wouldn't even be here. She wouldn't be spending her nights on the street, alone, facing … whatever he really was.  
  
A sudden move from his side and she lost the bar. She heard it clatter as it hit the ground. She stumbled back and fell on her knees, he just lifted his sword.  
The end. Well if it this were the way it was going to happen, than let it be thus. She faced up to him, pushing away her fear, confronting his eyes with her own.  
There was still a chance, one moment, get up girl, he's going to kill you. The voice grew louder and louder. She fought it down, lifting her head, locking his eyes, simply refusing to be scared. So what if she died, that was life, her life at least.  
  
His sword came down, away from her. She didn't understand, he let it down as if the fight was over. It wasn't. She kicked him to the ground, took her last stake out of her jacket and pushed it through  
his heart. He looked at her, not believing. She kicked him against the wall, his head hit a a sharp piece of out sticking stone. Why wasn't he turning to dust yet? Most of her prey did.  
  
But he didn't, he just died. His head cracked as it hit the wall, blood was still sipping from his lips. Oh God what had she done? The blood, there was so much of it. He was dead, utterly dead, nothing to signal survival in any way or form and the corpse was still there, the stake sticking in his chest.  
  
She touched it, pulling back hesitantly, backing of.  
She'd killed a man, she, the Slayer, had killed a man in cold blood. Would she ever know for sure what he was? If he were a demon or not. Even a madman didn't deserve this. His body, it was still there in the  
flesh, not in dust particles, slime, or something else in that category. A body, like any other, only she'd been the one to kill it. 

It was as if there were a lump in her throat a mile broad and she started pacing across the clearing. What to do? What if the police found out?  
What if…  
  
All of a sudden, she heard a gasp for breath, she turned around and faced … the man she'd just killed. He was pulling the stake out of his heart.  
The stake she hadn't dared take out completely. He groaned when he saw her. She couldn't believe her eyes, her ears, any of her senses, yet she knew that what she saw was for real. The dead man was getting up, supporting himself on the hard stone of the basketball court.  
  
She wanted to ask him a thousand questions, he just ignored her.

"You're not going to kill me again, are you?" was all he said. 

All she could do was gasp for air and try to get out of her shock. He just kneeled down and picked up his sword. He seemed to be looking around for something, she wasn't sure for what.  
  
"Stay out of my way girl, it'll only get you hurt." 

Then she followed his eyes up to the head that was still lying there. She'd almost forgotten all about it. He grabbed it from the ground and grumped a bit.  
  
"Don't worry kid, I'm leaving. Don't get involved."  
He started the car and left, Buffy stared after him, her reality blown to pieces.  
  
Companion piece: Shadows  



End file.
